Released August 9, 2005 (US), 2006 worldwide
Billboard: Peaked at #1.
UK Charts: Peaked at #2.
This one’s a pretty fun dance song. Of course, the artist has undergone, to say the least, much controversy, and I didn’t really enjoy most of his recent works (I Can Transform Ya was barely tolerable, Deuces was decent but a sleeper and Yeah 3X just… isn’t my kind of thing). Nevertheless, much of his earlier songs are pretty good. His singing’s pretty decent, and Juelz Santana is entertaining, to say the least – which works, given the generally relaxed themes in this one.
The video is pretty much a collection of dance scenes in a gym, and it’s pretty nice and well-choreographed, with some nice solo parts. Bonus points for a blue cap, heh…
Lyrically, this one can be taken pretty much at face value. It’s basically Brown’s character well, asking a girl to show off her skills and “run it” which presumably implies dancing. The hook and the chorus, if pretty literal, are entertaining…
Is your man, on the floor?
If he ain’t, then let me know
Lemme see if you can run it (run it)
Girl indeed I can run it (run it)
Bonus points for being a nice guy, huh… Contrasts to Drake in Bedrock (Oh that was your girl? I though I recognised) – for some reason I thought of that as I wrote this. The little R&B tinged segment in the bridge is nice too… All in all, it’s a decent song, nothing too impressive about it though.
OVERALL SCORE = 6.0 / 10
Though it’s neither cerebral nor ground-breaking, Run It! is a fun and relaxed party/dance song that stays pretty clean and has rather good vocals and enjoyable raps on it. It’s decent.
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